IMAGINING THE FUTURE OF AGETECH

Abstract The intersection of global population aging and technological trends in e-health, robotics, artificial intelligence, and mobile technologies has led to the emergence of “AgeTech” as a way to improve the health and well-being of older people. While this might be seen as an almost deterministic process of technological change, the visioning, development and implementation of technology is essentially a creative and socially-situated process. This requires us to understand AgeTech as a socio-technical imaginary, examining the intersecting spheres of social action and technological development. This idea of technological development as a creative process, runs counter to an idea of technology in purely rational and instrumental terms and brings into play cultural, political and behavioural factors. Our symposium examines the socio-technical imaginary of AgeTech in three papers: Paul Higgs and Chris Gilleard discuss Fourth Ageism and the Technological Imaginary of Long-term care and argue that the problematizing of aging present in current thinking needs to be challenged at the conceptual stage of technological development. Andrew Sixsmith et al will present on A Global AgeTech Agenda, with a particular focus on how AgeTech development and innovation should connect with global initiatives such as the UN’s Strategic Development Goals. Mei Lan Fang et al will take an Ethical Perspective on AgeTech to discuss some of the complex challenges around the creation and use of technologies and argue that culture change is needed within the research and innovation communities to develop ethically grounded AgeTech. This is a Technology and Aging Interest Group Sponsored Symposium.

interventions should be developed and selected according to the progression of dementia.More assessment studies using randomized controlled trails should be conducted, so that we can evaluate extant technology interventions more rigorously.

PATTERN RECOGNITION AND INNOVATION OF HOME-BASED CARE IN CHINA: FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF MULTINATIONAL COMPARISON
Hong Mi 1 , and Yuxia Wu 2 , 1. Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China (People's Republic), 2. Ningbo University of Engineering, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China (People's Republic) The development trend of family structure's miniaturization and nucleation in China and the overlapping occurrence of population aging and associated frailty and morbidities have created an urgent need for innovation in the home care service model.In this paper, home-based care is regarded as a dynamic pension method.Based on the analysis of dynamic changes in population structure and family structure, this paper uses multi-stage microsimulation technology to scientifically predict the evolution of the older adult population's distribution state and multi-health state.This approach leads to early identification of the risks of various home-based care models in the process of family structure changes.Based on this, with reference to the home-based care model cases in China, Japan, Europe, and the United States, this paper proposes the innovation of the multi-health state and the " integrated care at home" model for households with an aging resident and brings up the optimization plan of home-based care service for accelerating the aging process.Implications for policies and practices to support family members to realize this optimized home care model will be discussed.

IMAGINING THE FUTURE OF AGETECH Chair: Andrew Sixsmith
The intersection of global population aging and technological trends in e-health, robotics, artificial intelligence, and mobile technologies has led to the emergence of "AgeTech" as a way to improve the health and well-being of older people.While this might be seen as an almost deterministic process of technological change, the visioning, development and implementation of technology is essentially a creative and socially-situated process.This requires us to understand AgeTech as a socio-technical imaginary, examining the intersecting spheres of social action and technological development.This idea of technological development as a creative process, runs counter to an idea of technology in purely rational and instrumental terms and brings into play cultural, political and behavioural factors.Our symposium examines the socio-technical imaginary of AgeTech in three papers: Paul Higgs and Chris Gilleard discuss Fourth Ageism and the Technological Imaginary of Long-term care and argue that the problematizing of aging present in current thinking needs to be challenged at the conceptual stage of technological development.Andrew Sixsmith et al will present on A Global AgeTech Agenda, with a particular focus on how AgeTech development and innovation should connect with global initiatives such as the UN's Strategic Development Goals.Mei Lan Fang et al will take an Ethical Perspective on AgeTech to discuss some of the complex challenges around the creation and use of technologies and argue that culture change is needed within the research and innovation communities to develop ethically grounded AgeTech.This is a Technology and Aging Interest Group Sponsored Symposium.AgeTech is increasingly seen as a way to support and enhance the health and independence of older people.However, AgeTech research and innovation agendas overwhelmingly focus on the needs of older people in developed countries and have so far failed to recognise that population aging is a global-level trend that intersects with other "megatrends", such as climate change, urbanisation and international migration.Drawing on an environmental scan of the current and emerging AgeTech sector, this paper argues that technology research, development and innovation needs a global agenda that engages with initiatives such as the UN's Strategic Development Goals and Decade for Healthy Ageing.It is also important to situate AgeTech in the wider debate on global disparities.The ongoing impact of colonial legacy (afterlife colonization) continues to reduce life chances, leads to poor health, and is present in everyday relationships between people and institutions at global and local levels.This is particularly apparent in the unequal impact of climate change on people and places, but as yet, the discussion of these issues is notably absent in the narratives surrounding AgeTech.This misses significant opportunities for global reciprocity in health, co-development of useful and appropriate technologies, and more sustainable approaches to innovation (e.g opportunities for frugal innovation), The paper highlights the potential role of older people as active participants in technological change, for example for mitigating climate change and its unequal impact on the Global South Abstract citation ID: igad104.1602

FOURTH AGEISM AND THE TECHNOLOGICAL IMAGINARY OF LONG-TERM CARE Paul Higgs, and Chris Gilleard, University College London, London, England, United Kingdom
Many high-income countries are pre-occupied with the rising number of older people needing long term care and the consequent demand for a labour force to carry out these tasks.In many other sectors of the economy the problem of labour supply is increasingly being met by the introduction of sophisticated technology.Seeking to extend this strategy to the long-term care sector (LTC) has led to research and development in various care technologies.This paper examines the imaginaries fuelling such efforts, as distinct from the outcomes of such research.One such imaginary is that of a fourth age, a state of frailty and dependency that requires others to carry out instrumental and related activities of daily living to those deemed to have fallen under its shadow.This creates a set of contrasting goals, between on the one hand the desire to deliver LTC in a way that maximises the dignity and integrity of the persons receiving LTC and on the other the desire to reduce demands on the workforce.While the former stresses the maximisation of the humanity of LTC the latter is often motivated by the reduction of the (human) labour inputs involved.These dilemmas will arguably become acute if such various technological imaginaries become realities.This paper argues that forms of implicit fourth ageism present in current thinking need to be challenged at the conceptual stage of this technological imaginary.

TRANSDISCIPLINARY WORKING FOR CULTURE CHANGE IN ETHICAL AGETECH
Charlene Chu 1 , Judith Sixsmith 2 , Mei Lan Fang 2 , and Jennifer Boger 3 , 1. University of Toronto,Toronto,Ontario,Canada,2. University of Dundee,Dundee,Scotland,United Kingdom,3. University of Waterloo,Waterloo,Ontario,Canada This presentation proposes a new way of understanding ethical culture in AgeTech as a dynamic and changing set of ethical research, design, and developmental processes and practices.By focusing on dynamics of ethical performance and the values, beliefs, and expectations that underpin them, this approach emphasizes ongoing ethical negotiation of all stakeholders involved in the research, design, and development of technology, rather than as a checklist at the research outset.Transdisciplinary working (TW) is proposed as an effective means to implement ethical processes and practices.By involving diverse stakeholders in the development of shared aims and objectives, ethical considerations become detached from the domain of researchers and become a more inclusive stakeholder negotiation.TW acknowledges that the development of new technologies cannot be separated from the people who design and use them; and the social practices, social norms, and social meanings in which they are steeped.The co-creation of socio-technical AgeTech systems is a key strategy for creating culture-change in ethical working environments.By involving diverse stakeholders in dynamic ethical processes across the research pathway, meaningful involvement of all stakeholders can be ensured, resulting in the effectiveness and relevance of AgeTech.Subsequently, technologies that are more responsive to the needs and desires of older people, carers, and professionals, and better reflect the complex ethical landscape in which they operate are created.Overall, this presentation offers a new perspective on ethical culture in AgeTech, one that involves diverse stakeholders in the creation of socio-technical systems that are both effective and ethical.